In America, Digging Through Sacred Native Lands, Including Burial Sites, To Lay Pipe Is Apparently Still Legally Negotiable

If you have been following the ongoing battle of the Standing Rock Sioux in the American Dakotas to stop construction of a pipeline through environmentally sensitive lands that include Native burial sites, you know that there have recently been violently clashes – with the oil industry and its hired cops and attack dogs shown on film to be the instigators.

You may also know that a U.S. judge ruled this September 9th to allow the oil barons to continue laying the pipeline, worsening tensions between construction crews and Native protesters until, later in the day, the federal government intervened with a call on the pipeline company to “voluntarily halt” work until talks take place with Native communities on improving government-to-government consultations on infrastructure projects impacting their lands.

But why is digging a pipeline through sacred Native lands to carry dirty oil even negotiable? This brings me to a very telling image that one Niagara At Large shared with me over the last few days that I will share here now.

Meanwhile, back in Canada, we now have Native people fighting to stop the construction of a pipeline for carrying dirty oil to the east coast for exportation to countries like China. Lined up against the Natives are tar sands oil barons and some of the largest labour unions in the country, including unions that, out of the other side of their mouths, say they are against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal negotiated by the former Harper government and now being considered for ratification by the Trudeau government.

More on that sad state of affairs later. For now, I’ll leave the last word on fighting oil pipelines to one of the few living politicians I continue to have any respect for.

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“A politician thinks of the next election. A leader thinks of the next generation.” – Bernie Sanders